Satellite television has become increasingly popular due to its wide variety of programming. Entertainment in automobiles such as DVD players has also become increasingly popular. It would be desirable to provide a satellite television system for a vehicle so that the wide variety of programming may be enjoyed by the rear passengers.
Set top boxes, sometimes called integrated receiver decoders, are used to receive the satellite signals and decode the signals for playing on a display. Set top boxes continue to become more powerful and provide more functionality. Consequently, the operating systems for the integrated receiver decoders have also become more complex. The software image for these operating systems typically consumes several megabytes of storage.
Some set top boxes, receivers and other embedded systems require authentication of the software image that is to be executed to provide the services or access. Authentication allows the data or content to be protected. To ensure that malicious or modified software is not executed by the set top box, authentication is performed before execution.
The boot up process normally involves a secure boot loader which loads the application software from permanent storage to RAM for execution. In-place software authentication may also be performed. Typically the authentication process is performed for the entire software image and may take tens of seconds up to a few minutes.
In a mobile environment, integrated receiver decoders or receivers are constantly turned on and off. Therefore, consumers may find a substantial delay in the boot-up process undesirable.
In a fixed or home-based system, troubleshooting using a help desk typically entails rebooting the receiver. Reducing the amount of time to reboot will decrease the amount of time service personnel are required to spend with each customer.